Pages

Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Mass EU call for transparency in US/EU trade talks

‘People
have a right to know what is at stake’

As the 5th round of negotiations on the US/EU
free trade agreement kicks off in the US, 250 organisations, including from the
UK, have today sent a joint letter to EU Trade Commissioner, Karel de Gucht,
demanding transparency in this massive but secretive deal.

The letter, signed by a broad range of consumer, union,
environment and other organisations calls for negotiating texts for the
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to be released to the
public, as well as information on ‘who
is lobbying who’ in relation to the deal.

Although there is some talk of the Commission releasing its
negotiating mandate (which was leaked a year ago), the actual offers being made on behalf of 850 million people
are still secret, with the intention to keep the negotiating texts secret until
TTIP negotiations are complete.

The main thrust of TTIP is ‘harmonising’ the regulations of
the US and the EU – across all areas. There are big differences between the EU
and US in health and safety regulatory protection. Thus civil society groups
are concerned that standards e.g. on food and chemical safety, data protection
and public service models, will be degraded -with this happening behind closed doors.

‘It’s absolutely unacceptable that key TTIP
documents are not only being kept from the public, but that MPs are not
allowed to know what is going forward in this supposed ‘trade’ deal either.
This joint statement shows the breadth of resistance to thissecrecy’
according to Linda Kaucher of StopTTIP uk.

This deal will allow corporations to sue governmentsfor varying regulations after
commitments are made and signed up. Yet the commitments being made are being
kept secret.

The organisations are therefore calling for step-by-step
release of the negotiating texts, in all chapters of the agreement, and also of
records of the lobbying meetings that have taken place for this
corporate-agenda deal. Their
letter references EU commitments to ‘right-to-know’ and to promoting public
participation in the Aarhus Convention.